Thabang Thembani
Nyakallong should not only be seen as a mining area but as a very rich agricultural and farming area that has been marred by the dominant mining industry over the years. Around the area, we have small farms owned by residents and farms with reasonable hectares of land historically owned by white farmers.
Today, the important conversation we need to have should be centered around how we can save these farms and livestock of local farmers. Those who are sick and dying daily as a result of the following challenges faced by the community of Nyakallong:
1. For years the mining industry has been overshadowing agriculture in this area, because not only does the community regard mining as the influence that created this town. The community sees mining as an urgent response to the needs and desires of every individual member of the community as it provides the community with employment and social development of that community.
2. Mining has become counterintuitive to farming because of highly concentrated chemicals in the soil and in the water, this is where the exhausting conversation of Voelpan comes in. Because of this, recently the owners of livestock that are kept at 9 kraals have been experiencing terrible challenges with their livestock. The cows are getting sick and others dying. The 9 kraals are too close to the infamous Voelpan and are known for having high concentrations of
chemicals discharged by the mine.
These animals can drink from that dam and this may cause a health crisis, and putting that together with the fact that their owners cannot afford their right Feed. Their desire to avoid malnutrition makes this a very concerning case about the future of these livestock owners, whom some have invested so much in their
kraals to just lose everything they have worked so much for over a factor that can be intervened and solved accordingly.
Last week on Tuesday Khanyisile and I met with one of the livestock farmers; Ntate Naong, who had informed Ntate Makhotla about the cows that have died and 2 more that are sick. He said
‘ Yes, I called Ntate Makhotla, as I have also got the call about the cows that died on Friday. We need the doctor to come and help us. We will be very happy to know about what indeed is wrong with our livestock’.
Later that Day, Ntate Naong gets called because the cows were seen entering the farm nearby, he had to intervene as the leader of the livestock farmers. From these two situations provided here, you realize the positioning of place these kraals are situated is not conducive for the livestock’s wellbeing and the environment closer to them. There is a need for serious investment intervention to help revive the spirit of local farmers and encourage them to believe in their art of farming again. ‘My Child, I don’t know what to say anymore, I am hopeless. My crops do not grow as before. I hope this project helps to revive us’ mentioned the elderly woman I talked to during the phytoremediation project. She has a small land to farm in Mosala Secondary School, which is adjacent to
Voelpan. Some of her plants don’t grow where the water from Voelpan reaches the school because this water has a high concentration of chemicals.
If we could regard agriculture and farming as one of the rescue plans to escape poverty that has caused havoc in the Nyakallong community, we will then be able to clean out the legacy of mining in our community and create one that caters to the well-being and development of society.
